But you missed the point of the article. It's not about which carrier is cheaper.

It's about the structure of how your phone it paid for. It's about how you are penalized if you don't upgrade at an exact moment, and how the carriers hide that fact so they can milk some extra money from you.

If you've already chosen a carrier because they have much better coverage in the places you need, then you made the right choice and shouldn't change. But you can stay with your favorite carrier - in your example, Verizon - and avoid the scam of paying a subsidy for a phantom phone. That was the point of the article.